The first day in TRNP we drove the perimeter road. We stopped at the scenic walks to overlooks and a couple of the nature trails. It was a good overview of the park but the only wildlife we saw were a couple of distant horses, and a way distant herd of bison. One of the stops was a place that was said to be recommended by rangers for viewing sunsets, the highest point in the park. We determined that it would be a great plan after dinner to drive the perimeter road to the view point bringing our chairs. It also would be likely that there would better wildlife viewing in the evening.
On the way out we saw two antelope and a group of wild horses. And then as we rounded the corner, we encountered a young male bison. The guideline is to keep the wildlife at least 200 yards away but he no more than 25 yards and in the middle of the road. It is the beginning of the rut for the young males and this guy was looking for a girlfriend. It was a bit of a standoff until he wandered off.
Around the corner was the rest of the herd. Maybe 25 head scattered on both sides of the road. A line of cars in stretched in both directions, a crawl of traffic taking pictures and moving slowly through the clusters of huge animals.
It is hard to explain the bulk of these creatures. It is not length or height but the thickness of the chest and back and shoulders. A careless move by one of them would dent your car. I could not imagine the damage from an angry bison, coming at you with purpose. It was a gingerly enacted waltz, scanning the animals for intent as we moved through along with the traffic.
The traffic thinned as we rounded a few more turns and encountered another young male. This one was squarely in the middle of the road. There was no way around. He did not move, just stared us down. He did not care for us being there.
After what seemed a very long while he did move slightly to his side of the road. He flopped down into a patch of sandy dirt and began a dust bath, rolling on his back, kicking his legs, flipping his tail, getting and all over himself. It was quite a show.
I inched forward. He snapped to his feet, and stared the car down again. Then after a bit, as before, he flopped down again, and proceeded with the dust bath. I moved the car quickly past, not looking back to see if he enjoyed chasing cars more than dust baths.
We got up to the view point and took out our chairs. It is a spectacular sunset. The remnant clouds of afternoon thunder showers rimmed the western sky. Light streaked through breaks in the clouds. To the southwest but far away an active rainstorm provided a show of light through rain. The view point gave a 360 panorama. It was going to be a pretty clear night once the clounds diminished. We decided to stay until nightfall.
That plan ran into a little trouble. The gentle breeze, of the evening turned into a pretty good wind. As we sat in our chairs reading and observing the night, we kept going back to the car and layering up. We arranged the chairs so the car was a windbreak, but it was steady. With the sun going in and out of the shrinking clouds, and setting, it got colder and colder. Not to mention, in the western edge of a time zone the light lingers late. The sky in the east went through various shades of blue to indigo, to dark blue and competed with colder and colder temps.
It was a glorious show as we sat and hunkered down. The only light was that of about a half dozen distant gas flares as just outside the park the Dakota oil boom goes on. We read on our Kindle and iPad, waiting for the stars to come out at the edge of the road at a scenic viewpoint at the highest spot in TRNP. Dusk was long in coming for all the show the stars did not peak out of the dark blue blanket.
Then we heard it. The clatter of bison hooves on the pavement behind me, close behind. Marsha and I froze. She could see the big dark shape moving off the prairie and onto the road. I dare not move. We were out of the car without our steel protective barrier.
It was a single young male out courting, the brother or cousin of the ones we saw before. Which was safer, bolt for the safety of the car or stay frozen and try not to cause alarm?The clatter of hooves stopped, and my heart rose higher in my throat. We choose the freeze method not because we figured it was the best course, but because neither of us could bring ourselves to move.
We waited for what felt a long time, then the hoof beats started again. Thankfully he slowly ambled by, crossed the road and shuffled down a draw looking for ladies in all the right places. Immediately, the terror changed to - THAT WAS SO COOL! A bison walked right by us! How cool was that? It was just the charge of adrenaline to ward off the cold and keep us hanging on for stars and maybe a chance at the northern lights.
We re-hunkered. Put on hats and more layers. In a short while in the general direction of where the bison ambled there was the yip of a coyote. Then another called out, and another, and then it was a chorus of yipping and crying out to the east. And then, over the ridge, in the draw just below us, much closer, was an answer from another pack. That pack was real close, but we did not waver in our hunker. We had just out maneuvered, out stared and out waited the best of the bison, a couple of packs of wild dogs were nothing to us! We outsat the yipping and yodelling and things quieted down.
We hung on waiting for stars to show until 9:55, and then folded. I mean literally, we folded our chairs and drove back to the campsite. And true to form, as we drove in and looked up at the limited circle offered in the clearing, the sky was black and full of stars.
